Workload at rice?

<p>How about the workload in history and philosophy? Is the reading well selected?</p>

<p>A lot of it depends on whether you find it necessary to do your reading (protip: it usually is). If you consider reading unnecessary, then the workload in humanities and social science classes are generally low, since you only have a few tests and/or papers throughout the semester. But most English classes cover a book every two weeks, which is about 80 pages per night. I’m in a Poli seminar this semester that has about 200–300 pages of reading every week. You get used to it, and you learn when it’s okay to skim.</p>

<p>What kind of exams do social science majors have? all essays … mult. choice questions…</p>

<p>Which major has more class discussions? psychology or sociology?</p>

<p>race64 - these questions are pointless as they vary course by course and professor by professor, as I know that in PSYC 101 I had all multiple-choice midterms but I heard in political science it is more writing-based and conceptual rather than memorizing facts and terms. I haven’t taken a political science course yet so I cannot say for sure, but that is ridiculous to think that all social science majors from economics and political science to anthropology and psychology would HAVE to have all essays or multiple choice questions. That is not the case, it is completely up to the professor how s/he wishes to test his/her students and their mastery of the material.</p>

<p>You cannot categorically say that psychology majors won’t enjoy any more class discussions than sociology majors just as you can’t say the same for your own classes in high school of class discussion and learning.</p>

<p>The workload at Rice is relative to your own strengths and weaknesses - for example, someone who excels in math and sciences will not find chemistry and multivariable calculus as difficult as humanities subjects of English and history if he is not so strong in writing. Moreover, the workload at Rice is typical of any other top school like Northwestern and Georgetown, though I would say that pre-med students and aspiring engineers will most likely have more work and need to study much more than humanities and social science majors - but then again, this certainly is not unique at Rice, as that sort of situation is the same for any other university.</p>